The Free Church case 1900-04 and its origins: a study in the relation of Church and creed

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In 1900 the Free Church of Scotland and the United
Presbyterian Church united to form the United Free Church
of Scotland. A small minority of the Free Church declined
to enter the united Church and attempted to continue the
separate life of their Church. Indeed, the claim was made
that it was ultra vires for Free Churchmen to join the
United Free Church and that the minority alone represented
the Free Church of Scotland. When this claim was taken to
the law courts the final result, four years later, was
that the name and property of the Free Church of Scotland
were found to belong to the dissident minority. This
study examines the law case and its origins in the history
of the Free Church. The principal sources employed are
the legal proceedings, the official records of the Church
and the writings of its more prominent members.

The finding of the study is that the ecclesiastical
division which manifested itself in the law case of
1900-04 can be traced back to an earlier Union controversy
which began in 1863. Indeed, there is evidence that the
seeds of the division are to be found at the very
foundation of the Church in 1843. Conflicting approaches
in social philosophy, theology, worship and piety are
described and analysed. The conclusion is that what, at
bottom, divided the contesting bodies was their attitude
to Creed. The United Free Church championed the view that
the Church, acting in obedience to Christ her Head, had
absolute power over her Creed and was free to alter,
change, add to or modify her constitution and Creed. The
continuing Free Church, on the contrary, held that the
Church's identity was dependent on her loyalty to her
settled Creed and constitution. It is argued that this
difference was decisive in the law case and that it lay at
the bottom of the controversy from the outset. It is
concluded that the end result of the controversy and
ensuing law case was the fatal disturbance of a credal
balance which had characterized the Church of Scotland
constitution inherited by the Free Church in 1843 : a
balance between massive inbuilt doctrinal conservatism
and a decided assertion of the Church's superiority to her
Creed.